Dodds trial: Mystery deepens

Thursday

Jan 31, 2008 at 2:00 AM

DOVER — The prosecution's case against former congressional candidate Gary Dodds began to take form on Wednesday with evidence showing Dodds might not have been lost in the woods the entire time he was reported missing and instead could have been hiding out in his Portsmouth rental property.

Beth LaMontagne

DOVER — The prosecution's case against former congressional candidate Gary Dodds began to take form on Wednesday with evidence showing Dodds might not have been lost in the woods the entire time he was reported missing and instead could have been hiding out in his Portsmouth rental property.

New Hampshire State Police trooper Joseph Ebert testified that he and Sgt. Richard Mitchell went to look for Dodds in Portsmouth on April 6, 2006, the day after he crashed his car along the southbound lane of the Spaulding Turnpike and subsequently disappeared. They knew Dodds' congressional campaign headquarters and rental units were located in the 1805 Cutts Mansion, said Ebert, and were investigating any possible places he could have gone after the accident.

Ebert said he and Mitchell entered a hallway common area in the apartment building and knocked on one of the doors. This door was to the apartment of former campaign staffer Alison Spruce, a woman prosecutors have alleged was Dodds' mistress.

"We knocked on that door and there was a (man's) voice on the other side of the door asking, 'Who is it?' Sgt. Mitchell said it was the state police, and we didn't hear anything after that," said Ebert. "At that time, I walked around the side of the building to look in the window to see if someone was actually in there."

Not seeing anyone inside, the officers called Dodds' wife, Cindy, to see if she had a key to access the apartment and the campaign office. While the officers waited for the key, Spruce returned home.

"She allowed us access to the apartment," said Ebert. "I went into the bathroom ... and there was no one to be found."

Defense attorney Justin Nadeau, on cross-examination, asked Spruce if she knew or even thought anyone had been in her apartment. Spruce answered, "No," adding, "I would think I would know." Ebert also testified he and Mitchell tried to gain access to the campaign office, but not even Cindy Dodds had a key. Though Spruce said there was usually a key on top of a nearby windowsill that staffers could use, Ebert said Mrs. Dodds and the police could not locate it.

Though it was not raised at trial, a 2000 Herald interview with Gary and Cindy Dodds reveals they had found a tunnel under the Cutts Mansion that leads to Cutts Cove. In the article, Dodds said the previous owner told him the tunnel is large enough for a person to stand in until the edge of the property and then only large enough for a person to crawl the rest of the way.

Testimony later in the day focused on the search for Gary Dodds on April 6, 2006, and an unrelated search of the woods in the area where he was found that turned up nothing.

Dover Police Officer David Martinelli said he was serving as the Garrison School resource officer the day after Dodds disappeared when he got a report two boys had seen a woman carrying a gun heading into the woods. Martinelli conducted a preliminary search of the grounds and the edge of the woods and didn't find anyone.

He returned to the school and spoke to the boys further, then returned outside for a more extensive search. Martinelli said the ground was muddy and he didn't see anyone else in the woods, or even any footprints. After coming up empty again, Martinelli said he returned to the school to speak with his lieutenant about whether there really was a woman in the woods at all. He searched the woods one last time, and when he found nothing, went home.

The prosecution asked Martinelli to show on a map of the area displayed on a projector where he had searched, according to a GPS reading done days later. Martinelli pointed to an area close to the marked GPS location where Dodds had been found.

Donna Larson, one of the founders of New England K-9 Search and Rescue, testified about finding Dodds with the help of her search dog, Eli, behind the Garrison School. Dodds called out to her in a weak voice. When she found him, he was lying under a pine tree covered in leaves.

"His biggest complaint was his feet," said Larson. "I took his socks, and he had one shoe on. I started looking at his feet and they looked pretty swollen." Larson said she felt his feet for a pulse and after finding one in both, put dry wool socks on his feet.

"He seemed alert sometimes and sometimes not," she said. "Sometimes I'd look down and he'd have his eyes closed."

Though a number of people testified Dodds' feet were clearly injured, New Hampshire State Police Capt. Robert Quinn told the court these injuries, which he observed at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, did not appear consistent with the rest of his body.

"The first body part I saw was his feet," said Quinn. "They were dark purplish. They obviously looked like they had been exposed to the elements. ...; There was what I would call a clear line of demarcation where his socks would end ...; where his sock line would end up, above that looked to me like it was normal."

Trooper Ebert and other witnesses who testified to seeing Dodds in the hospital also confirm the line of demarcation above Dodds' ankles in the hours after being found.

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